International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue4- April 2013
Automatic Signalling System for Trains
Kota Shiva Kumar#1, Suresh Angadi *2
#
Final Year B.Tech, Dept. of ECE, KL University, Vaddeswaram, AP, India
*
Assistant Professor, Dept. of ECE, KL University,
Vaddeswaram, AP, India
Abstract— Now a day, managing the train movement between
various stations in a railway division has become a herculean
task involving manual labour and data transfer through phone
calls and record entries. The train is needed to be constantly
signalled at each station the train crosses by, with the flag master
waving the green flag and being reciprocated by the respective
guard under duty. The signalling will be under the control of
respective stations but can be signalled only after proper
authentication from the Signals & Telecommunication
department in a divisional Railway under various Zones. The
main objective of our project is to develop a system which
automatically defines the signalling of the train on a particular
track line automatically by establishing optical sensors at
particular intervals along the track length and by taking the
feedback from the sensors, the signalling will be done by the logic
written in the micro controller programming and a the
movement of the trains can be monitored in a display at the
Route Relay Interlocking department and the Signals &
Telecommunications department. The project highlights the
concepts of managing the trains between stations by developing a
simulation through microcontroller with the feedback from the
sensors. The project concludes with a real time simulation of the
train management system on a LCD in route relay interlocking
panel.
employing relays in the station premises which work at 6-10
voltage levels.
The off station signaling will be taken care of the signaling
and telecommunication department in a particular division.
Though the signaling operation will be under the control of
the respective stations, they cannot operate without proper
authentication from the S & T department.
Keywords— Relays/ Optocouplers, Micro controller, LCD.
Block Diagram:
I. INTRODUCTION
Railway traffic control requires dedicated point-to-point
and point-to-multipoint circuits for communication over larger
number of signal points spread along the track. A typical
dispatcher control section spreads over 200 kilometres with 30
to 40 signal points. Delay in travel is major concern for
everyone these days. Now a day’s signalling is most often
become a hectic task in managing trains. When this delay is
occurring in remote areas or during night times the loss or
damage being caused is at higher rates. The damage is heavier
due to improper reach of service at right time due to improper
communication. The train management system can overcome
such delays and problems particularly in the off-station
signaling. The train management system can be broadly
divided into
1.
On-station signaling and
2.
Off-station signaling
The on-station signaling will be entirely under the control
of the station master and RRI at the respective station. But still
there might be locking problems since Indian Railways is
ISSN: 2231-5381
II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Once the train is off the platform in a particular station,
then the signaling can be done automatically by its movement
depending on the traffic ahead of the train. When the train
started, the signals in front will turn green and in the behind
for a safe distance of 6 kilometers, the signals will turn red
and after that again it will turn green. Now as the train moves,
the signals do change but the red signal behind the train will
be maintained constantly thus avoiding collision with other
trains travelling behind. Here we are using optical
sensors/relays fitted to the track and feed back is taken which
indicates the train position. With the feedback and the
program code in the micro controller, the signaling will be
done as explained earlier. We can also provide a display at the
RRI indicating the train position.
A key board is attached to the controller to provide more
number of trains, displayed on the LCD.
III. HARDWARE DESIGN
A. The Sensor & Signalling Module
The sensor and signalling module consists of optical
sensors installed along the railway track at the signal poles.
When the train starts from a station the sensors placed along
the track at regular intervals of 1-2 kilometres senses the train
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue4- April 2013
and immediately it sends feedback to the microcontroller
placed at the Route Relay Interlocking section or station
master’s chamber.
An optical sensor network, which combines computer and
communication technology with the technology of sensor
network, is considered to be one of the emerging technology
that will affect the future of human civilization. This network
is composed of numerous and ubiquitous micro sensor nodes
which have the ability to communicate and calculate. These
nodes can monitor sense and collect information of different
environments and various monitoring objects cooperatively.
A sensor (also called detector) is a converter that measures
a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be
read by an observer or by an (today mostly electronic)
instrument. A sensor is a device which receives and responds
to a signal when touched. A sensor's sensitivity indicates how
much the sensor's output changes when the measured quantity
changes. For instance, if the mercury in a thermometer moves
1 cm when the temperature changes by 1 °C, the sensitivity is
1 cm/°C (it is basically the slope Dy/Dx assuming a linear
characteristic). Sensors that measure very small changes must
have very high sensitivities. Sensors also have an impact on
what they measure; for instance, a room temperature
thermometer inserted into a hot cup of liquid cools the liquid
while the liquid heats the thermometer. Sensors need to be
designed to have a small effect on what is measured; making
the sensor smaller often improves this and may introduce
other advantages. Technological progress allows more and
more sensors to be manufactured on a microscopic scale as
micro sensors using MEMS technology. In most cases, a
micro sensor reaches a significantly higher speed and
sensitivity compared with macroscopic approaches. There are
also innumerable applications for sensors of which most
people are never aware. Applications include cars, machines,
aerospace, medicine, manufacturing and robotics.
Relays are of inductive load and generate reverse EMF. So,
there is a possibility of interlocking. Though both relays and
optical sensors are isolated and noise free, there are zero
losses in optical sensors and is of optimum cost. So, uses of
optical couplers are of great importance in the signaling of
trains moving at such great speeds. Moreover with the
advancement in technology and in retrieving information
using relays will be herculean task and involves huge human
effort. So, optical sensors will play a vital role in cutting down
the labor involved and improves efficiency.
B. Micro controller Module
The program for a microcontroller is normally stored on a
memory IC called EPROM or in microcontroller IC itself. An
EPROM (electrically programmable read on memory) is a
special type of IC that does nothing more than store program
code or other data that is not lost when power is removed
traditionally. Software programmed into an EPROM which is
then physically inserted into circuitry of hardware. The
microcontroller accesses the program stored in the EPROM
and executes it. This allows the program to be made available
ISSN: 2231-5381
to microcontroller without need for a hard drive, floppy drive
or any of other circuitry and software necessary to manage
such devices.
In recent years a growing number of micro controllers have
offered the capability of having programs loaded internally
into the microcontroller IC itself. Rather than having a circuit
that includes both a microcontroller and external EPROM it is
now possible to have a microcontroller which store program
code internally.
The AT89C52 provides the following standard features: 4
Kbytes of Flash, 256 bytes of RAM, 32 I/O lines, two 16-bit
timer/counters, five vector two-level interrupt architecture, a
full duplex serial port, on-chip oscillator and clock circuitry.
In addition, the AT89C52 is designed with static logic for
operation down to zero frequency and supports two software
selectable power saving modes.
The feedback taken by the microcontroller is analysed and
the signalling is done according to the logic employed in the
program code in a microcontroller program; which turns red
the signal poles, for a distance of safe distance of 6 kilometres
and all the other points other than the immediate three poles
(pole to pole distance taken as 2kilometres here) behind the
train turn green. Similarly the signal poles ahead of the train
will be green if there is no train running in front.
C. Display Module
Frequently, an 8051 program must interact with the
outside world using input and output devices that
communicate directly with a human being. One of the most
common devices attached to an 8051 is an LCD display. Some
of the most common LCD’s connected to the 8051 are 16x2
and 20x2 displays. This means 16 characters per line by 2
lines and 20 characters per line by 2 lines, respectively.
Fortunately, a very popular standard exists which allows
us to communicate with the vast majority of LCD’s regardless
of their manufacturer. The standard is referred to as
HD44780U, which refers to the controller chip which receives
data from an external source (in this case, the 8051) and
communicates directly with the LCD.
ULN2003 is a high voltage and high current Darlington
array IC. It contains seven open collector Darlington pairs
with common emitters. A Darlington pair is an arrangement of
two bipolar transistors.
ULN2003 belongs to the family of ULN200X series of ICs.
Different versions of this family interface to different logic
families. ULN2003 is for 5V TTL, CMOS logic devices.
These ICs are used when driving a wide range of loads and are
used as relay drivers, display drivers, line drivers etc.
ULN2003 is also commonly used while driving stepper
motors. Each channel or Darlington pair in ULN2003 is rated
at 500mA and can withstand peak current of 600mA. The
inputs and outputs are provided opposite to each other in the
pin layout. Each driver also contains a suppression diode to
dissipate voltage spikes while driving inductive loads.
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue4- April 2013
IV. SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been done under the frame of Practice school
as a part of college curriculum. The authors acknowledge the
support of Practice school Manager Mr. B Suresh, project
head Mr. V Samson and technical guide Mr. A Suresh.
A. Power Supply
REFERENCES
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Kota Shiva Kumar# was born in 1990 in
Visakhapatnam District. He is currently
pursing B.Tech from K L University. He
is interested in Telecommunication
Systems.
Email:kotashivakumar.ksk@gmail.com
ULN2003 A
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The 8051Microcontroller by Kenneth J. Ayala
Rajesh, N.N.Ramesh and S.M.Prakhya 2010.
Wireless vehicular accident detection and notification system.
International conference on mechanical and electrical technology.
The IEEE website. [Online]. Available: http://www.ieee.org/
An Automated Traffic Accident Detection and Alarm Device.
M.Rajendra Prasad, P.Aswani Kumari paper published in IJTEL.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_optic_sensor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display
The 8051 Microcontroller and Embedded Systems Using Assembly
and C 2nd-edition by Muhammad Ali Mazidi
L ED
LED
LED
LED
LED
LED
LED
LED
VCC
V. CONCLUSION
In this project optical communication and sensor
technologies are used to sense the position of the train and to
give the feedback to the micro controller. The project can be
extended to the local tram management by developing an
efficient system at the Route Relay Interlocking.
ISSN: 2231-5381
Suresh Angadi* is presently working as
Assistant. Professor in department of
Electronics and Communications at KL
University. He received his B.Tech degree
in electronics and communication in
G.V.P College of Engineering, Vizag 2007
and completed M.Tech in Maulana Azad
National Institute Of Technology (NIT
BHOPAL) in 2009, Bhopal. He has
published SEVEN international journals of
repute
Email: Suresh.a@kluniversity.in
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